Second Contact, page 58
part #2 of Not Alone Series
“We’re all sitting here trying to make sense of their setup with the so-called Elders, of their rules about minimal necessary intervention, and of every other little thing. But how can we reasonably expect to make sense of this? This is humans trying to make sense of what aliens did while the aliens were trying to make sense of what humans were doing. They don’t understand us perfectly, but they were trying their best… just like I’m trying my best to understand all of this right now and just like I’m trying my best to help you understand it, too. But if you’re going to ask me to try to give you anything more than the factual sequence of events I’ve just laid out, I don’t know what to tell you.”
Clark nodded approvingly in support of Dan’s relatively succinct rundown of a true story crazier than anything either of them could ever make up.
“I can confirm that this is exactly what Mr McCarthy told me in the vehicle,” Harris said, nodding along with Clark. Dan’s rundown had certainly been a lot briefer than the one he’d given Harris, likely due in no small part to practice making perfect.
At least three voices other than Harris’s proceeded to ask Dan a series of easily answerable questions for the next hour or so, none accompanied by a name or any platitudinal remarks.
Some of the questions were better than others, but some of those others — particularly towards the end — truly tested Dan’s patience.
“I wish you could just stick a damn cable in my neck and download my thoughts,” he groaned after repeating the same thing for what felt like the dozenth time. “I’ve told you absolutely everything I asked the Messengers and absolutely everything they told me… at least twice, and that’s after I told Harris everything in the car. Do you people need me to write it down? Draw you a picture?”
Clark put a hand on Dan’s shoulder to try to calm him down, but he himself was growing increasingly impatient after almost two hours in the dark and uncomfortable room.
A good deal of the time had been filled by Dan recounting both of his conversations with the Messengers in the fullest detail he could. None of the follow-up questions surprised him and none suggested any esoteric knowledge on the part of his questioners, and he was particularly unsurprised that the one part of his testimony which drew the firmest questions from several of the voices was the part concerning the Messengers’ initial decision to destroy DS-1’s core module moments after its launch.
That the Messengers had done this to prevent the eventual orbital placement of nuclear weapons seemed to cause great unease on the other side of the one-way mirror. On sporadic occasions during the past year, Clark had spoken of his own mild concerns in this regard, insisting that it was a basic rule of life to “never trust someone who doesn’t want you to be able to defend yourself.”
This was a point of view Dan had once been able to understand perfectly well without necessarily agreeing with it, but he now saw the Messengers’ better-late-than-never deflection of Comet Conte-Abate as sufficient once-and-for-all confirmation of their non-hostility.
“And its not like the Messengers forced nuclear non-proliferation or anything like that,” he said. “They didn’t negotiate or bargain with us. They didn’t set any conditions for their intervention… they just saved us. If that’s not a sign of peace, what is?”
The questioners were also keenly interested in Dan’s revelation that, as the Messengers told him during their first meeting at Lolo, humanity already had a name for their home star but not for their home planet. They were quickly disappointed by his honest insistence that he knew no more than that, but some thought that this knowledge — particularly when combined with a careful study of the Messengers’ physiology which could reveal much about the atmospheric conditions they evolved in — could ultimately prove important in the search for New Kerguelen.
The final few questions that came Dan’s way related to his own “gut feelings” about the Messengers and what form any future contact might take.
“They said that they’ll only come back if it’s necessary and that each situation is judged on its own merits,” he said. “Just like I told you, for the second time, literally five minutes ago. I’ve been here for hours, I’ve told you everything, and all I’m doing now is repeating myself. Harris, I don’t know what else these people want from me, but I’ve got nothing left to give them.”
Harris nodded. “Thank you for your cooperation,” he said.
The other voices, decidedly less friendly and more businesslike, extended their own perfunctory messages of gratitude.
“I’ll see you all again next time,” Dan said, attempting a joke that only really registered with Clark.
Back in the corridor, Harris stayed true to his word. “Pick a door,” he said.
Dan pointed to the first door on the left. Harris entered the passcode and looked into the retinal scanner, prompting the door to open. Inside the room, Dan saw nothing but filing cabinets. “I picked the wrong one,” he laughed.
“I’m afraid they’re all like this,” Harris said, laughing slightly himself. “Some of them have more interesting files than others. Ironically enough, this particular room contains old articles and images of reports which turned out to be hoaxes. There are normally patterns in such accounts. Needless to say, Walker’s IDA leak doesn’t exactly fit the mould!”
Six out of six rooms later, Clark was bored out of his skull and even Dan felt like he had eaten enough dessert for one lifetime. The extensive secret files on controversial events such as Roswell and Tunguska, both of which were perpetual themes in conspiracy circles, were the highlight of Dan’s visit, but he couldn’t help but feel like there must have been more to see in other less accessible parts of the facility.
“I wish Billy had been here to see this,” he said as they walked up the stairs at the end of the corridor and back into the hangar where it had all started several hours earlier.
“Billy Kendrick?” Harris asked with a dry chuckle. “When his big breakthrough book came out way back when — you know, How and Why: Five Scenarios For Disclosure — this place was closed down for two weeks! There was some hyper-specific stuff in there that some higher-ups thought only the staff here could know, and we were all interrogated about it. They never did find a mole, but that’s one of the reasons Kendrick has been on so many watch-lists over the years: he finds things no one else can.”
“Almost no one else,” Clark said, patting Dan firmly on the back as they approached the vehicle.
Dan tried to sneak his way into the front section by engaging Harris in conversation, hoping to see outside and figure out roughly where this secretive facility was located. The plan might have worked were it not for the vigilance of the driver who rolled down his window and told Harris in no uncertain terms where the brothers had to sit.
They were given water and some basic snacks for the return leg of their journey, and both were all but certain to have a much-needed sleep before they arrived back in Colorado to whatever kind of hysteria might be waiting.
“Thanks, guys,” Harris said as he prepared to crawl back through his hatch to the front of the vehicle after ensuring they were settled in. “For everything. You made my job today a lot easier than it could have been.”
“No sweat,” Clark replied. When Harris disappeared, he then leaned towards Dan and whispered a question he’d been wanting to ask for hours: “This is Area 51… right?”
“I’m going to buy you a map when we get home,” Dan said. “And if you can find a car that could drive us to Area 51 in the time we were on the road today, I’ll buy you that, too.”
“Smart-ass,” Clark hissed, only slightly exaggerating his chagrin as he settled into a comfortable position.
The vehicle slowly made its way to the edge of the hangar, then sped up and headed for Birchwood.
C plus 45
En route
Destination: Birchwood, Colorado
Towards the end of the drive back to Birchwood, the agent known to the McCarthys only as Harris showed his gratitude for their cooperation once again by waking them in time to watch a late-night announcement from the White House.
Joining them in the back of the vehicle, Harris held a large tablet computer at arm’s length with Dan and Clark on either side of him.
The video statement from President Slater was very brief and had been prerecorded at her desk with no reporters present. In it, after confirming the already universally understood news that Comet Conte-Abate no longer appeared to be heading for Earth, she publicly and personally absolved Dan McCarthy of any guilt anyone may have attributed to his secrecy regarding Richard Walker’s hoax while also vowing to launch a full investigation into the events surrounding the hoax itself.
She also told the nation, and indeed the world, that Dan had spent the day liaising with “specialist personnel” and undergoing both physical and psychological testing following his “extraordinary interaction with an extraterrestrial being.”
More details would be forthcoming, Slater said, but the long and short of it was that Dan’s ultimately successful attempt to draw the Messengers back to Earth and his equally successful attempt to persuade them to alter the comet’s trajectory had “quite literally safeguarded the immediate future of our planet.”
Dan could never truly like Slater after her actions of the previous year, but his position on that front was gradually softening.
President Slater stopped tactfully short of speculating on what the day’s events would mean for the GSC, but she did take a few seconds to acknowledge John Cole’s earlier resignation as British Prime Minister — an incident which normally would have been the biggest thing to happen in any given month but which had today been utterly cast aside by the breathtaking events which occurred in Birchwood just a few hours later.
“It would be remiss of me not to mention John Cole’s resignation,” she said, working hard to conceal the smile that seemed determined to break out, “and I’d like to take this opportunity to express my support for the acting Prime Minister, Diane Logan, who many feel was unfairly replaced by Mr Cole as Deputy Prime Minister prior to William Godfrey’s move to the GSC. History sometimes has a way of correcting its mistakes, and in the potentially tumultuous weeks and months ahead, a steady hand and firm ally of the United States is exactly what the United Kingdom, and indeed the world, needs more than anything.”
It struck Dan as more than a little odd that Slater spent around a fifth of her time talking about a political story that he imagined hardly anyone in London was even talking about given the epoch-defining events at the drive-in, but he by now understood only too much about the charade of frontline politics and knew that Slater, like the rest, really did care more about getting one over on her rivals than she did about anything else.
Slater signed off with a call back to her initial Disclosure speech, which despite having been issued under false pretences would never be a source of real embarrassment given that every other world leader had also simultaneously issued their own.
“A year ago,” she said, “I signed off with the message that we may no longer be alone, but we will always be united. A year is a long time in politics, as today’s developments in London have further underlined. But what today’s developments in Colorado have underlined is that there is no ‘may’. We can no longer consider ourselves the only intelligent and technologically advanced race to have walked on Earth, and we can no longer consider ourselves the only intelligent race prone to altruistic empathy. Tonight, we will celebrate the intervention of those we know as the Messengers; we will celebrate the news that Comet Conte-Abate, christened Il Diavolo by its first human observers, will miss our planet entirely. But tomorrow, I hope, we will take a moment to learn from the Messengers’ example.
“Not every action has the desired result, and the knock-on effects of a good intention can be positively grave. But with the desire to do good — to enhance, to uplift, and to protect — there is no mountain too high, no valley too deep, and no comet too diabolical to overcome. The weeks since the comet’s discovery have been more trying than any we can remember, but the resolve of this great nation and its fine citizenry has never wavered. We have made it through the darkest days and we have emerged stronger and more united than ever.
“Ladies and gentlemen… we are not alone. And because of that, we are safe. We are united, we are together, and we are past the darkest days. Tonight, tomorrow, and always, may God bless America.”
Harris powered down the tablet as soon as Slater’s statement concluded. No one reacted vocally to her words, which were fairly uncontroversial and would likely strike the right chord among most of the watching public.
“We’re almost back in Birchwood,” he said. “And so you don’t get any surprises, I should tell you that the town is essentially locked down. This isn’t like last time with local cops and plastic barriers; this time there are full roadblocks at the main entrance to Birchwood and no private vehicles are getting in or out, no exceptions.”
“So the roadblock is before the drive-in?” Clark asked.
“Yes. The drive-in is in Birchwood, after all. You’ll see what I mean when we arrive.”
“Hmm,” Clark said. “In that case, could you guys drop us off in Colorado Springs instead? My car is on the wrong side of the roadblock but Emma’s is still parked at Fiore Frontiere.”
“Do you have the key?” Dan asked.
Clark reached into his pocket for his own car key, which Harris had returned when he arrived with the tablet. “Her spare is on here and our spare is on hers.”
“That should be fine,” Harris said.
Clark nodded and turned back to Dan. “This way we’ll have one car on each side of the roadblock, so whenever we need to go somewhere we won’t need to walk all the way from the edge of town.”
Dan wasn’t really listening, too focused on something else. “Speaking of Fiore Frontiere,” he said to Harris, “what’s happening with the investigation into the explosion? Was it really those Welcomer assholes?”
“Yes, to the best of my knowledge,” Harris confirmed, “and I have been kept abreast of the developments. The renovation crew was compromised by a rogue individual who modified the chairs before moving them inside from the delivery truck and placing them on the stage. But the press room was fully fitted out several days ago, so the attack was intended for the first press conference in that room rather than the specific press conference you planned for yesterday morning. The device under Timo’s chair was not remotely detonated when he sat down, as many in the media have been thinking. All three chairs were rigged to explode when a certain amount of weight was first placed upon them, but sloppy workmanship ensured that the first two failed. Without wishing to downplay what happened, it could have been a lot worse than it was.”
“The IED did look like shit,” Clark said. “Thank God for amateur hour, right?”
Harris lifted his phone from his pocket to check their current location and immediately knocked on the division between the large vehicle’s front and back sections. He opened the doorway-like hatch and informed the driver of the new drop-off point, which was less than a mile away, then finally reunited the brothers with their phones.
“Your phones are fully functional,” Harris said as he handed them over, “but all recent location-based data has been scrambled, which may affect the short-term performance of certain apps.”
“I’ll survive,” Dan said.
Harris then offered his hand, first to Dan and then to Clark.
“I wish I could say it’s been a pleasure,” Clark jibed as he shook it firmly.
“Well,” Harris said, “if you ever want to join us again at Area 51, you know who to ask for.”
Clark turned to Dan. “See, it was Area 51!”
“He’s messing with you, man,” Dan laughed.
Harris laughed even louder and winked at Clark. “It’s been a pleasure.”
Outside, the night-time city air hit the brothers like a welcome splash of water on a hot summer’s day, reinvigorating them after far too long cooped up in the back of the oversized SUV.
The streets around the Fiore Frontiere headquarters, once the IDA building from which Richard Walker had tricked the world, were no busier or quieter than normal. The building itself was surrounded by a large cordon covered in police tape, with several lights shining from the inside and two forensics vans parked as close as possible to the main doors.
Emma’s car, which she had parked on a nearby side-street to enable an easy entrance and exit through the building’s rear doorways, was safely clear of the cordoned-off parking lot. Clark clicked the key to remotely unlock the car and Dan got inside first.
The smell of Emma’s perfume hit him so immediately and conjured up so many automatic thoughts and feelings that Dan’s eyes closed of their own accord as his lungs inhaled deeply.
Clark could smell the perfume, too — ridiculously strong, in his opinion — and he knew it would mean something else to Dan. “Five more minutes,” he said, checking his mirrors and hitting the gas. “Five more minutes and we’re there.”
C plus 46
McKinley-Dwyer Hospital
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Parked in the same spot where everyone had looked down at him from the hospital’s high windows as he yelled into the sky at the end of his last visit, Dan McCarthy stepped out into the parking lot with a spring in his step.
The security guard at the door and the receptionist inside both said hello to the brothers but looked at them with slightly unsure eyes, knowing full well that they had been physically immobilised by extraterrestrial beings and that Dan had been physically connected to one less than twenty-four hours earlier.
